The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-16
BILL NYE
Gives His Version of the Story of Char
IOtte COrday.

and ss the letter has been referred to me, l
take great pleasure in stating briefly, and
in glowing terms, what L am able to recall
of this eccentric young woman s life.
Charlotte Corday was born on foreign
strand now known as Normandy, named In
honor of the large speckled gray horses
with thick, piano legs and gross necks, that
come from there to engage in hauling beer
wagons in the land of the free and the home
of the brave.
Here Charlotte was born in the year 1893.
Like the record of Mr.. Spartacus, who, IN
speaking of his own experience, said that his
early life ran quiet as the clear brook by
which he sported, the childhood of Char
Iotte Corday was almost devoid of interest,
being monotOnous and unanimous, as self
made man said to me not long since, refer
ring to the climate of the south.
She early turned her attention, however,
to the matter of patriotism, hoping to OBJ
tain a livelihood in the patriot line some
day. She investigated the grievances OF
France, and gave her attention almost ex-
clusively to the invention of some way by
which to redress these grievances. Some
of them had not been redressed for centu-
ries, and they ought to have been ashamed OF
themselves.
According to all accounts, the grievances
of France were, at that time, in full dress
and short sleeves ready for the ball to
open.
1t fell to the lot of Charlotte Corday to
open the ball
She was a beautiful girl with clear blue
ewes, placed at equal distances from tall,
light colored nose, which was pale when in
repose, but flushed delicately when she was
in tears. Her ripe and ruddy French mouth
opened and closed readily when she was en-
gagged in conversation, and her white and
beautiful shoulders ever and anon, while she
talked, bumped themselves like hired man
on his way TO dinner.
She had also treSSeS of hair of that pecul-
lar Titan variety which is supposed to go
with freckles and high temper The his
torian says that her hair looked black as II.
divided over her fair forehead and hung
back across her shapely head, but at night,
as it was draped across the richly carved
frame of the au revoir where the hire lght
or the Norman Hose company could play
upon it, you would have thought it bright
and infammatory red Charlotte Corday
was tall and graceful, and when her elastic
step and heroic feet followed the light meas
ure of some gay French tune at an October
pumpkin peelng, she could dance on for
hours without Earring the glass in the win
dows very much.
Her costume was simple and did not cost
a great deal. 1t consisted OF Normandy
cap made of cheese cl95h in shape like the
Tall OF q SSDU1nR men, anu III
with real French lace from the ten cent
counter. Her dress was all wool delaine
with a pin stripe in it and trimmed with the
same Her other dresses were different
Her stockings were tall and slender as seen
hanging on the woman clothes line at Caen,
but her heart was gay and happy as the day
was long.
Charlotte Corday was one of large
family whose descendants were called Cor
d11rou They yVara the inSti0atOrS of StYle
of road that has done more to shorten the
spinal column and jolt the jejunum into
chaos than any other line of inventions
throughout the United States.
Charlotte Corday had voice which &C
companied her in all her rambles, and it is
said that it was very musical and sounded
first rate.
Her parents were poor, so she had very
few advantages, as will be noticed at once
by the careful student who reads her MSS.
to-day and notices where she has frequently
spelled cabbage with k. She spoke French
fuently. but was familiar with no other for
eign tongue whatever.
She took great interest in politics, but
did not indorse the administration. She
felt more especially bitter toward gentle
man named Marat, who was rather literary
in his habits and who also acted kind
of chairman OF the National Central com
mittee To his other work he had also adj
ded the tedious and exhausting task of pick
ing out people and indorsing them as suita-
BILE persons to be beheaded. Being jour
nalist he had to write hard all the evening
to get the hook full of red hot political edi
torial copy, aud then when he should have
gone to bed and to rest he had to take the
directory and pick out enough people for
mess the following day.
In this way Marat was kept very busy,
with the foreman on his heels all day and
The guillotine on his heels all night, and
every man was afraid to see the deputy
sheriff coming, for fear he had a subpoena
for him 1t was no unusual thing in those
days for a Frenchman to turn off the gas
and go to bed, only to find his shirt collar
all bloody where the guillotine had banged
his hair just above his Adams apple in the
morning.
Those were indeed squirming times, as NJ.
de Lamartine a humorous writer of France,
has so truly said No man felt perfectly
safe when he saw Marat at sociable or
caucus. 1t was impossible to tell whether
he had come to write the thing up for his
paper OF pick out some more people to be
killed by the administration. They got so
that Marat could induce any of them to sub
scribe for his paper and people advertised
in his columns for things they did not want
in order to show that they felt perfectly
friendly toward him.
1t was at this time that Charlotte COrday
called one morning at the apartments of
Mr.. Marat with view to assassinating him.
She sent in wor1 that young lady from
Caen desired to see Mr.. Marat for the pur-
pose of paying her subscription. She was
told that the editor was taking bath. She
laughed cold, incredulous laugh, for she
had seen great many French journalists,
and when one of them sent word to her that
he was bathing she could i'll repress low,
gurgling laugh.
Finally she was admitted to his privatS
apartments, where he was indeed in the
bath with an old table cloth thrown over
him, engaged in writing scathing criticism
on the custom of summer following old
buckwheat lands and sowing Swedish tur
nips on them in July, when the country
was so crowded for cemetery room.
Charlotte apologized for disturbing the
great journalist at such time, and remark
ing that we were having rather backward
spring produced short stab knife with
which she cut large overcoat button hole
in the able journalists thorax.
She then passed into the Office, and leav-
ing word to have her paper stopped she went
TO the execTIfiOner